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Wednesday, 14 March 2018

JOINT SERVICE DIVING SAFETY CONFERENCE 2018

This year’s
Joint Service Diving Safety Conference was hosted by the RAFSAA at RAF Brize Norton in order to
make the conference more accessible to the service community. Unfortunately, and unlike the RAF, they
forgot to book any heating in the venue J

As usual JSSADC ran a number of skills development courses pre and post conference which
included Marine Radio Operator (5-6 Mar), SADS Refresher (8-9 Mar) and
Collective First Aid Training (8-9 Mar).

And as usual,
JSSADC offered out
freebies to the attendees such as new SADS slates and diver recall tags.

Below is a
bullet point summary of the conference.It only needs to be as such, as most of the presentations are
hyperlinked.

BSAC National
Diving Officer – Sophie Heptonstall

Sophie delivered updates from the conference back in
October including:

·Changes to OD course.

·Technical updates including trying to get me to
do more demo skills videos, the purchase of a Liberty CCR and the success of
Technical Try-Dives including the next event 25/26 May 2018 at NDAC:

Fancy a day out at BSAC’s next Try Tech event,
this is aimed at divers looking to move to rebreather diving or to take one of
the combined technical skills development courses. Try Tech is open to BSAC
members and non-members who are Sports Diver (or equivalent) or
above.

The Try Tech National Event – is to be held over four days from 25 to 28 May at
the National Diving and Activity Centre (NDAC) in Chepstow – is the latest in a
series of BSAC Try Tech events organised by BSAC’s technical team.

Ideal for divers thinking of moving over to CCR or rebreather divers looking to
have a go on another unit. Rebreather units available for the sessions include
AP, Poseidon, Liberty and Red Bare.

o60 day lead time.This must be
adhered to otherwise the system will automatically decline your bid.It can be difficult to change the order once
placed however due to nominal changes Bicester will support where possible.

oCannot be used under the 48hr rule.

oThe correct forms must be used.

·Issuing process:

oThe equipment must be collected.It cannot be shipped.

oThe receiver must be on time for their allocation window.Leave early.It will take approximately 3 hours to issue all the equipment.A cylinder can be provided to check equipment
serviceability such as BCD pressure, regulators, Factair…

oAlso check all small items such as DSMBs etc…Get all the equipment out of its packaging.

oThe receiver must be BSAC DL or above to receive the equipment.If a Factair F2235 is to be collected the certificate of
training must also be produced.

·Expedition leaders are to ensure correct equipment discipline. Look after
the equipment.Ensure it is not dragged
through the sand, dust caps are fitted etc…

·Do not open the regulators to try and fix them.

·Returning process:

oThe equipment must be returned promptly.And the equipment must be clean and dry or
you will be turned away.All batteries
to be removed from torches.

oComplete logbooks on all the equipment if issued, even if not used.

oComplaints should not be raised to the staff (remember they are just warehouse
workers). Report them to your Regional Command.

·Report faults early. There may be
larger equipment issues and if identified, any remaining equipment of that type
within Loan Pool 29 can be removed from the shelves.If the equipment is involved in an incident
then an incident report form is to be completed.

Cliff then went on to discuss other issues:

·Exped centers and allocations.

oDIN released in May for Cyprus & Gibraltar.Ascension currently offline.

oListed the equipment available.Please note only one computer per person.

oBoats; Ian in Cyprus and RHIBS (purchased from charitable funds) in
Gibraltar.

oEquipment developments; A-clamp to DIN on regulators, computers to
increase to 2 per person.

·Possible re-allocation of the membrane
compressor from Ascension to Cyprus.

·Castlemartin exped option.

The presentation concluded with a Q&A
session which covered:

·Issue of computer batteries?No as
will go missing (kept) if not used.

·Loan pool save a dive kit for expeds? Good idea but no for the same
reason above.

Like Sophie’s
presentation, he delivered updates from the conference back in October.This included:

·Initial thoughts.

·Linking BSAC courses to JSP 419, the definition, phases, and how they can tie into
the core skills such as Teamwork, Leadership, Communication Skills, Resource
Management, Financial Management, Planning, Administration Skills and Working
with Others.

oHe compared this year’s incidents with the past 10 years.This includes BSAC’s reporting, Coastguard and RNLI
with all reported similar data in terms of trends.However the RNLI data was only assessed as
they changed their reporting methods this year so it was not fully captured.

oThere appeared to be a spike in IPO, separation and solo diving.All of which were identified as being
involved in an incident but not necessarily the cause.To note, the team at CJSATC were given an
award this year for their swift response to an incident which was reported to
include IPO.

oThe average age of a diver involved in an incident is 55 year old.

oThe incident report was linked back to Adventurous Training.A controlled exposure to risk.Dom then added that in the assessed circa
20000 dives through AT (including expeds, training etc…) there was not a single
report of a DCI.

oEvery year the same contributing factors occur such as rapid ascents,
separation etc… Only the percentages change.However there have now been the more unusual which included trapped
wind, unzipped dry suits, foul gas, and condom catheters.

Jim then linked back to Joint Service incident reporting and summarized
that the majority of incidents reported were not serious.And that we as a community had helped the
wider diving community.Such as the AP14
CCR cell issues as we were the only members of the UK diving community that
were reporting it.

50 Years of RAFSAA – Peter Maskell, Dave Ray, and Mark
Brabon

Pete started off the presentation
discussing Ascension and the possible return of Voyager aircraft to the island
in 2019/2020, along with the possibility of a COMMAC at Cape Verde.Regarding the Ascension equipment, one
membrane compressor may go to CJSATC as previous discussed in Cliff’s
presentation, one maybe kept in storage, as will the equipment (for now).

Image provided by JSSADC

Dave then went on to discuss the formation of
RAFSAA(ppt download) and how BSAC as an organisation and its qualifications have changed over the years,
as how the equipment that we use.

oEach exercise is one week long, but conducted over two sessions
throughout the year.Each session
consists of two one week exercises.

o20 places per week.10 are open
for beginners and another 10 for qualified divers.

oThere are 8 instructors per week.

·It is a perceived success as for this upcoming year 220 people have
applied for 80 slots.

·JRs are paired with an officer for the week for development.

The presentation
concluded with a Q&A session.It was
discussed whether a UK model would have the same ‘pull’ as Malta.It was also asked if they had seen any retention,
however this is no different in my opinion to any other adventurous training
activity.Finally, one of the audience
members had been a MALTESE EAGLE participant and gave their (positive) thoughts
on the experience.

·COMMAC statistics.But also
emphasised that if they’re not used the centers will not renew and we as a
service community will lose out.

Overall, very short and sweet.

JSSADPAC
Q&A

Image provided by JSSADC

·Me.Following up on a new point from last year
where the old SofD banned technical training in branch.Only JSSADCand CJSATC could deliver it under JS
regulations.The new SofD explained that
he (potentially) didn’t see why, if the instructors are appropriately qualified
and the safe systems were in place, why it couldn’t be delivered in
branch.No change of policy yet but the
new SofD seems very onside.More to
follow.I will chase this again next
year.

·More
questions on DSM 1/18, manufacturers guidelines, age of regulators etc…This then snowballed into further questions
and discussions.Post conference an
amendment was issued and is below:

DSM 02-18 –
SCUBA Emergency Breathing Systems

Following discussions
with HSE, JSSADPAC and at the JS Diving Safety Conference the Defence Safety
Agency (DSA) has issued DSM 02-18. This supersedes DSM 01-18 which is now
obsolete.

·Try dive
medicals.As anticipated this was a hot
topic and some thought an answer to this issue would be released at the
conference.However there are plans in
place to hopefully mitigate the need for a try-dive medical if certain
conditions are met, such as maximum depth of water.More to follow shortly.

·The previous
questions also brought up the question of HSE medicals v Leaflet 12-03.Nothing is confirmed or even promised, but
the use of HSE medicals is something that is currently being looked at.However an HSE medical is lower than a
military one in terms of Diabetes & asthma.

·It also
brought up that each single service has differing start states to be able
attend a diving medical.

·Quality
Assurance.The QA process was raised but
BSACNDO
summarised by saying in a volunteer organisation there is not the time,
manpower or resources to do the level of QA that was being asked.Jim Watson highlighted that this doesn’t mean
BSACis not
interested in QA, but we already have a QA in place (surveys on course
materials, DO in branch, or lead instructor in centres).ASADA Chairman added that professional
organisations such as PADIdo not even have the level of QA that was proposed.

·I then raised
a point about the number of Instructor Trainers within the military, and if
branch members feel there is a QA issue that can request IT support through
their single service associations.

·Duty of care,
sponsors, being held to account, promoting safety.This re-generated the medical discussion.

·Questions on
duty/off duty status, military funds/non-public funds and how branches can
survive if they’re a garrison branch rather than a station branch due to less
direct funding.It was requested if ATGA
could deliver more input into branches. Cliff Pearn discussed ATG(A)funding. This tied back into the sponsor debate.

·Ginge raised
the question on my behalf regarding the proposed DIN last year on Castlemartin
giving free training packs to ASADA branches.Unfortunately due to ATG(A)funding this has been shelved for the time being.

The day then
finished with a closing address followed by a function later that evening to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of RAFSAA.

Thank you to JSSADCfor
the use of pictures and presentation downloads.

The next
conference is due to be on 20 March 2019.

Safe diving.

The boring bit!

All opinions
expressed in my articles are my own and may differ to other instructor’s and
agency guidelines; by no means are they wrong and I would not wish to disrepute
any of them.This article is for
information only and should not replace proper training.